# Stars!

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Stars! and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Nostalgic 1990s 4X space strategy game with deep choices, now playable on modern Windows. Main caveat: completing a turn takes a lot of effort.

## Why people recommend it

- Fond childhood memories of playing (6 comments): "Stars! was awesome, many fond memories of play-by-email games of that..." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345908)) "It was such a fun game to play back in the 90s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49846414)) "Used to love playing this game as a kid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777432))
- Still fun, charming and deep (2 comments): "It had so many strategic choices, giving it a depth that would surprise most modern gamers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49782155)) "still has a lot of charm, is fun and interesting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49778193))
- Playable on modern Windows (2 comments): "I loved this game back in the day and was looking for a way to play it just last month!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49779051)) "the recent super impressive Stars! port to modern Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49781095))

## What people warn about

- Slow, effortful turn completion (1 comments): "frustrating problems as well, in particular how much effort it required to complete a turn" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49785404))
- Crashed after 40 turns (1 comments): "Have to say, I did crash out after 40 turns though, which is ridiculous" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777042))
- Tedious economic micromanagement (1 comments): "Without all the Econ micromanagement would have gotten rid of one of the bigger mechanical advantages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777573))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Battle for Wesnoth](https://hackerapproved.com/p/battle-for-wesnoth.md): 39 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Civilization](https://hackerapproved.com/p/civilization.md): 25 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Civilization III](https://hackerapproved.com/p/civilization-iii.md): 20 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri](https://hackerapproved.com/p/alpha-centauri.md): 16 recommend
- [Heroes of Might and Magic III](https://hackerapproved.com/p/heroes-of-might-and-magic-iii.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Stars!", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stars/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).